As GOP Attacks Harris On ‘Defund The Police,’ It Defends A Criminal Who Honors Cop-Beaters

WASHINGTON ― As Republicans ramp up their attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris for her remarks on the “defund the police” movement, they remain locked into defending Donald Trump, a convicted criminal who literally salutes violent insurrectionists who beat police officers on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Ironic, isn’t it,” said a Republican National Committee member who spoke on condition of anonymity, pointing out that Trump also has called for “defunding” federal law enforcement. “He wants to dismantle the FBI.”

Harris, a former prosecutor and later the attorney general of California, never signed onto calls to “defund” entire police departments, but said she did support “reimagining” how much money was devoted to police compared to social services in crime-ridden communities. On June 9, 2020, she said in an interview just days after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police that “this whole movement is about rightly saying, we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities.”

The coup-attempting former president and his allies have worked to spread those remarks to make her look soft on crime ― even though Trump has promised to pardon all those prosecuted for their actions on Jan. 6, including those who attacked police officers with flag poles, sticks, a baseball bat, pepper spray and even the officers’ own Tasers.

“Trump oversaw the largest single-year spike in the murder rate in more than a century, proposed defunding law enforcement in every single one of his budgets and wants to pardon the criminals who violently assaulted police officers on Jan. 6,” Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said. “A Donald Trump presidency means more shootings, more deaths and more